


Two Days and One Night in a Mausoleum

by TrilliumWoods



Category: The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Genre: Awkward Flirting, Awkward Sexual Situations, Blood and Injury, F/M, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Gunshot Wounds, Hurt/Comfort, Making Out, Mild Sexual Content, Sexual Inexperience
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-04
Updated: 2018-02-12
Packaged: 2019-03-12 05:59:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 18,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13541199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrilliumWoods/pseuds/TrilliumWoods
Summary: When Lock is injured on Halloween, he and Shock don't make it to the portal back home in time.  They're forced to stay hidden together in the Human World until help arrives, and they're also forced to confront their changing feelings for one another.  Rated M for some swearing, mild blood and gun violence, and mild sensuality.  Set when they're in their late teens.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my next attempt at writing a more 'slow-burn' relationship-evolution story. It's intended to be a sequel to 'Fancy Clothes, Confusing Feels and New Friends', but you don't have to read that one in order to read this one.
> 
> Contains some swearing, mild blood and gun violence, and mild sensuality.

The autumn night was crisp and chilly as Shock flew swiftly on her broom back to the small churchyard cemetery and over to their designated meeting place – for she and her cohorts always had a plan in case they decided to branch out on their own or were accidentally separated.  She had agreed to meet Lock here a little after four AM, and sure enough she found him leaning up against a once-grand-but-now-crumbling marble mausoleum.  It was the largest thing in this cemetery and at one time had clearly belonged to the most powerful and wealthy family in the earliest days of the town, but now, like everything else here, it was rather neglected and decrepit - a perfect home base for the trio this Halloween.

“Took you long enough.” Lock said as she landed beside him and hopped off of her broom.

“Hey to you, too, butthead.” she replied as she tucked her broom away inside of the heavy doors.  She didn’t typically keep it with her when she caused mischief with Lock or Barrel, since neither of them could really ride on it.  If she needed to make a quick getaway she could just turn into a cat, while Lock could disappear in a burst of flame and Barrel could make himself invisible to human eyes while he slowly and quietly crept away.  “So, have you convinced anyone to sell you their soul yet?” she smirked as she leaned up against the mausoleum beside him.

Lock gave her an annoyed look.  “No, you know we devils don’t do that anymore.”

Things had changed several centuries ago as the old world and old beliefs softened and as science began to debunk the old myths about creatures such as themselves.  They still existed to frighten the living for as long as their kind were remembered, but the frightening was more symbolic, more lighthearted and fun - they served the purpose of entertaining the humans with ghoulish delight or keeping them slightly on-edge rather than literally killing them or consuming their souls.  Oogie Boogie had said that the new ways _’chopped the damn balls off’_ the creatures of Halloween Town, but Jack had welcomed the change and most of the other citizens were fine with it as well.  As long as they could still scare people, that was all that really mattered - no one else had quite the same intensity of bloodlust that the Boogie Man had possessed.

“What about you?  How many humans have _you_ killed tonight?” Lock said sarcastically, knowing full well that the answer was _‘none’._   “Or did you just stand around and make bad-smelling soup and jump out and yell _‘boo’_ at people?”

Shock stuck her long, hooked nose in the air and said snottily, “Very funny.  For your information so far I’ve contaminated several wells with a potion that will make people feel sick and cause terrifying hallucinations, I messed with people’s heads by letting them see me turn into a cat, and I cast a few spells that would make them worry they were going crazy.  And yes, I did in fact jump out and scare some people - don’t try to pretend that you don’t do that, too!”

“That’s a pretty good idea, spiking the wells…” Lock mused, scratching his chin.  They had chosen a more rural area to work this Halloween.  Usually working the cities was more fun because there were more humans to scare, but the country had a lot going for it, too.  There was a different kind of scariness that could be achieved in the woods and fields, for the lack of light pollution made the darkness so intense that it could reduce the bravest human to a bundle of quivering nerves as they squinted into the night and tried to determine if their eyes were playing tricks on them, or if those really were glowing, evil eyes staring back at them… and it was so quiet that every rustling sound, every snapping twig, every gust of wind, every mournful werewolf’s howl pierced the night and went straight to the hairs on the back of the necks of those mortals unfortunate enough to hear.  Lock smoothed his dark red hair back with one hand and said silkily, “Not as good as tempting people into sin, but not half bad.”

Shock raised a brow at him.  “Oh really?  So what sorts of sinful thoughts have you been planting in people’s heads this time?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” he winked, and she rolled her eyes but he elaborated anyway.  “Lots of sex stuff.  Country humans are generally pretty hung-up about it compared to the city ones.  So, I just give them lots of _‘deviant’_ ” - he held up his hands to make air-quotes around the word - “thoughts and feelings.  You know, _‘unnatural’_ and _‘ungodly’_ ” - he made the air-quotes again - “desires.”

“Like what?”

“My my, when did you turn into such a perv?” Lock teased her, and Shock felt her face go a little pink.

“Like you’re one to talk!  You’ve been a total perv for your entire existence!”  Well, at least since they'd started growing up, she thought to herself.

“It’s not my fault, it’s my job.  I’d be a pretty crappy devil if I didn’t have wicked ideas to spread to the humans.” he grinned evilly.

“I bet you’re lying.  What do you even know about sex anyway?” Shock said haughtily.  When they were little trick-or-treaters all they did was acquire candy and pull pranks and cause minor property-damage, but once puberty hit their roles had slowly begun to change and now that they were in their late teens they took on more of the duties of the elders of their species… though they still enjoyed causing property damage and sometimes they even stole some candy just for old-time’s sake.

“I’m not lying, I have a good imagination.” Lock said slyly, and suddenly Shock’s own imagination was running wild thinking about what sort of _‘deviant desires’_ he could possibly be thinking up.  “It’s not exactly difficult out here, anyway.  Let me just say that I help keep the stereotypes of hillbillies marrying their sisters and screwing their livestock going.”  He grinned widely and his pointy teeth glinted a bit in the moonlight.

“That’s disgusting.” she laughed and elbowed him in the side.

“That’s the whole point.” he said naughtily, and Shock rolled her eyes but she couldn’t argue with that.

“Have you seen Barrel around lately?” she asked, changing the subject away from anything remotely sexual before she started blushing too badly.

“Not for awhile.  I think he’s digging up dead cows and leaving their half-eaten carcasses in peoples front yards.  Something like that.”

“That sounds about right.  He’s probably going to be in a rotten-beef-induced coma for the next week.”

“Perfect, then we can eat all his candy.” Lock grinned, and Shock laughed again.

“Sounds like a plan.”

“Well, until Tubby gets done chomping on cattle how about you and me go cause some trouble?  Maybe set a couple barns on fire, throw some bricks through windows, slash a few tractor tires…” 

“Sure, that sounds fun.” Shock said, pushing herself off of the wall and Lock did the same.  Shock loved her littlest cohort with all her heart and playing tricks with both of her best friends was still the most fun thing in the world… but lately - much to her chagrin - she’d been treasuring the time she spent alone with Lock more and more.  She tried to blame it on her own hormones combined with the fact that he’d grown absurdly attractive as the years wore on, but the tiny, honest part of her heart that she tried to squash down knew it was more than just that.  And to make things even more confusing, initially she thought she was alone in her misery but ever since Jack and Sally’s wedding anniversary ball two months ago she was starting to wonder if perhaps, _just maybe,_ he might feel the same way about her.  He’d always been as charming as he was annoying, and he’d also always been a bit flirtatious, too… but now it somehow felt like there was something deeper behind it… but she just wasn’t sure, and she was too scared to risk ruining their friendship - or at the very least causing a half-century of awkwardness between them - by making a move beyond their increasingly suggestive banter.

If only she had known that Lock was indeed suffering same kind of misery that she was.  That night at the ball had flipped and then completely smashed the switch in his mind from _‘Shock is my friend’_ to _‘I wish Shock was much more than my friend’_ and he’d been in a constant state of low-level agony ever since.  Usually he was pretty adept at keeping his cool around her - no small feat for a hothead such as himself - but alone in his room at night that agony would flare up and he would bite back his moans as he took care of it, so to speak.  It was depressing and pathetic, but he told himself it was the only way to keep from embarrassing himself around her - a sort of preventative measure against humiliation.  Lock was usually a very self-assured and confident sort of devil, but this was one thing he wasn’t certain of at all.  He didn’t have the slightest clue if she reciprocated his feelings, and while he had no qualms about doing dangerous stunts with his body, he was terrified of crashing and burning when it came to this.  But this fear didn’t keep him from making tiny, tentative attempts to suss out more information about what she was thinking and feeling, nor did it stop him from taking every subtle opportunity he could to get close to her and even touch her, if possible.  So far these attempts had _seemed_ to go reasonably well, he thought... but oh, how he wished he knew for sure what she was thinking.

They walked together out of the old, overgrown cemetery of the little churchyard that had probably been there since the first farmers settled and began working the land, so close together that occasionally the backs of their hands would brush against one another.  They both wondered if the other was doing it on purpose, and they both wished they actually had the guts to just take the other’s hand properly.  As it was, they kept their hands where they were and chatted about this and that, nodding and waving to any other hard-working Halloween Town citizen they happened to pass.

“So, whaddaya wanna do?” asked Lock as they arrived in what passed for the main town.  There really weren’t any humans out and about anymore, but that just made it all the more easy to cause trouble.

“Earlier I saw a huge combine in a field to the east a little ways.  Those things are crazy-expensive, if we can figure out a way to break it that’ll _really_ piss someone off.”

“How do you know the going rate of combines?” Lock teased.

“Because I actually do research on things, stupid.”

“Yeah, but on _farm equipment?_ ”

“On everything.  Just because you’re a moron who only thinks about sex and violence…”

“Hey, sex and violence are fun.  More fun than combines…”

“I know you’ve got violence down pat, but again, remind me what you know about sex?” Shock sneered.  She didn’t know why exactly she was pressing this question so hard tonight, nor how she was hoping he would answer.  Did she really want to know if he’d done anything with anyone?  But somehow even just talking about it with him was making her feel all weird and tingly.  _‘God, I am the most pathetic witch in the entire universe if that’s enough to get me going.’_ she thought miserably to herself.

“I already told you: I have a good imagination.  A great imagination, in fact.” Lock said, too embarrassed to outright admit that he really had no firsthand knowledge of anything sexual beyond his imagination and getting himself off.  The truth was he’d never really been personally attracted to anyone until he realized his attraction to her… and consequently he’d never even done so much as kiss anyone, although he’d certainly had plenty of opportunities to.  He knew for a fact that several girls in town had crushes on him, but if she wasn’t Shock, then he wasn’t interested.  He supposed that made him a pretty sorry excuse for a devil, but he just couldn’t help it.  He was snapped out of his thoughts by Shock’s snide voice:

“Uh-huh.  Have you seen what a combine can do, though?  You do _not_ wanna get run over by one of those things.  Talk about violence.”

“Alright, we’ll go mess up your precious combine.  Maybe I can set the gas tank on fire and blow it up.”  They grinned wickedly at one another as they headed that direction, but then something caught Lock’s eye: “Hey, look at that truck!”

Shock looked where he was pointing and saw a very large, very fancy and very expensive-looking truck parked in a driveway.  It was huge and shiny and clearly a prized possession, and even though she didn’t know a ton about human vehicles it appeared to her that it was about as tricked-out as a truck could get.  It wasn’t as pricey as a combine, but surely wrecking it would piss someone off just as badly and Shock agreed that it would make a suitable warm-up for vehicular destruction.  “Shall we do the usual?” she smirked up at him.

“You read my mind.” he smirked back, and after they took a quick look to make sure no one was watching he crept around to the front while Shock went to the rear, and they both pulled out their knives to begin slashing the tires.

“Oh my god.” came Shock’s incredulous voice from behind the truck.  “That is the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen.”

“What?” asked Lock, poking his head around the side of the truck, but he couldn’t see her.

“There are fake balls on this fucking truck.”

“What?”

“Fake testicles.  A big fucking chrome scrotum.  Dangling off the bumper.  Why the hell would anyone think that was a good idea?”  She sounded completely disgusted but Lock couldn’t help but snort a bit.  He agreed it was totally stupid, but it was also pretty funny and he was definitely going to have to look at that before they left.  But he still had work to do up front, so after he slashed his two tires he picked up a rock out of the yard and used it to start breaking the headlights - and then the windshield.  They were both preparing to run for it, assuming that a truck this expensive would have an alarm… but nothing happened and Shock’s suspicion that whoever owned this truck was a moron seemed confirmed.

 _‘Excellent.’_ Lock thought to himself, but just as he raised his arm to smash the rock through the driver’s side window an intensely bright floodlight suddenly illuminated the entire driveway and a loud, angry voice from much closer than they would have expected shouted: “WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING!?  GET THE HELL OFF OF MY PROPERTY, YOU GODDAMN HOOLIGANS!!”  The owner of the truck had managed to sneak up on them in the dark somehow, but Lock and Shock weren’t scared and they both laughed raucously as Lock turned to throw the rock at the human instead of the window… but his eyes widened when he saw the barrel of a shotgun pointed right at him.  Shock poked her head around the truck to get a good look at the anger on their victim’s face… then she saw the gun for only a fraction of a split-second and before she could yell out a warning there was a flash and a deafening _‘BANG!’_ … and Lock made a noise somewhere between a scream and a grunt, then disappeared in a flash of fire and smoke. 

"Oh shit!" Shock gasped, but she quickly regained her senses and before the human could turn the gun on her next she swept her hands forward and muttered a curse and the gun was magically torn from his hands and landed in the bushes. Then she muttered another, more complicated incantation to change into her black cat form, then clawed her way over the fence and darted off into the night before the confused, swearing – and probably terrified at this point – human could find their gun again.


	2. Chapter 2

Shock ran as fast as she could on her four swift legs back to their meeting place and she could only hope that Lock had found his way back there as well. She slipped beneath the cemetery gate and over to the mausoleum, and when she was sure the coast was clear she morphed back into herself and crept inside.

"Lock?!" she called breathlessly out into the dark, and not for the first time she wished she could see in the dark as well as he could. She was about to turn back into a cat so she could see a bit better when she heard his voice echoing from the back of the mausoleum.

"Shock… I'm down here." His voice sounded strained but relief flooded through her anyway because at least he was still alive and had the presence of mind to get here. She saw a faint, flickering light and tore down the aisle in that direction, the soles of her boots clacking loudly against cracked marble. She found him sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall and holding one hand to his left thigh and creating a small, weak ball of fire with his other hand that was providing the only source of light in the room. He was panting hard through his gritted teeth and she could see the sweat on his forehead glistening in the firelight… and then she saw the pool of blood spreading out from beneath his leg, so dark it was almost black.

"Fuck…" she murmured, dropping to her knees beside him and wishing her healing skills were more advanced than they were.

"You're telling me." he managed to joke, but he was clearly in a tremendous amount of pain and Shock couldn't help but give him an exasperated look. Couldn't he ever be serious?

"Hold the fire down here so I can see the damage." she ordered, and Lock obeyed without question. His hand was shaking a bit which caused the already flickering flame to jump and lurch, but it was good enough for her to see where the bullet had hit him. It looked incredibly nasty.  Shock had seen plenty of photos of point-blank shotgun wounds in her reading, and while this wasn’t quite as severe as people who had their whole faces blown off, it was still really bad.  She could only assume it hadn’t blown his leg completely off thanks to his relative toughness compared to humans, and also because the human who’d shot him had been standing at least fifteen feet away.  Lock looked down at his own wounded leg and joked again:

"That looks pretty wicked. If it didn't hurt so damn much it would be a good look, I think…" He tried to laugh but it sounded more like a strangled sort of grunting.

"God, shut the fuck up, you idiot." Shock snapped, taking out her worry on him as she ran through the catalogue of spells in her mind to find the one that would be most effective. She decided on a binding spell that would hopefully bring his torn flesh back together, but it required actually touching him. "Take a deep breath." she told him, then placed her right hand on the gaping entry wound and reached beneath his thigh to touch the even larger exit wound. His leg was hot and his blood even hotter as it pulsed beneath her hands, and she had to agree with him that if blood loss wasn't a serious concern for creatures such as themselves it would have been quite wicked-looking, indeed. As it was, she focused her thoughts away from his flesh and his blood and onto her spell instead.

Lock sucked in a harsh breath and the flame in his hand actually went out for a second as the pain became so great that he lost focus, but he quickly recovered himself because there were few things he hated more than appearing weak in front of Shock. If he hadn't been in such pain he would have actually savored her hands around his thigh, and he wished she was touching him under better circumstances… but at this point, sadly, he would take what he could get. He tried to keep his eyes open through the agony to watch as she muttered strange words in a soft, haunting voice, her eyes shining like obsidian in the light of his flame. He always loved it when she did magic like this, and even though he'd never said it out loud he was in awe of her wide range of skills. Slowly he felt the blood stop flowing and the wound began to change, the torn edges of his flesh began creeping back together and even though it still hurt tremendously it had vastly improved from a strong, sharp, constant pain into a sort of deep, throbbing ache.

"There." she said, gently removing her hands from his leg. "That'll at least keep you from bleeding out." It dawned on her that he probably could have cauterized his own wound, but secretly she was glad he had either not thought of it or that he'd let her heal him regardless… although considering how much trouble he was having maintaining a simple steady flame she thought that perhaps he might not have been able to do it at the moment.

"Thanks. I knew there was a reason witches are my favorite." he said in a slightly-less-strained voice, harkening back to a conversation they'd had those two months ago on the fountain outside Jack and Sally's anniversary party. It had been a slightly awkward one, but he had replayed it in his mind countless times since then, analyzing it from every angle and wondering if she'd really been flirting with him or if it was only in his head… and despite his injury he wanted to see how she would react to his attempt at flirting now. Happily, her cheeks seemed to flush a bit and she almost looked a little shy when she met his eyes… but then the shyness quickly gave way to a more typical, snarky Shock expression.

Shock remembered that conversation very well, and the fact that he apparently remembered it too made her treacherous heart skip a beat. It took tremendous effort, but she managed to smirk: "Sorry I don't know anything off the top of my head for making it hurt less – usually I'm trying to make you suffer, not feel better."

Lock chuckled a little at that. If only she knew how much she'd been making him suffer lately, although probably not in the way she was thinking. She stood and wiped her bloody hands all down her dress and he liked how it looked, then she continued, "I can fix it better when we get home. You're like roadkill down there, it's gonna take some potions and more serious spells to clean that up."

" _If_ we get home." Lock pointed out. They were quite a ways away from the nearest portal back to Halloween Town and he was almost positive that he wouldn't be able to walk.

"Can't you just do your poofy-fire-teleportation-thing again?"

"I don't think so. That last one took it all out of me." he admitted, once again cursing his weakness. Why couldn't he be like some of the other creatures in Halloween Town that were impervious to bullets and other such injuries? Although he supposed that being a ghost or something similar came with it's own set of frustrations.

"In that case, it's going to be a challenge to get back to the portal in time." Shock fretted. "Your leg's fucked beyond all reason, you can't ride with me on my broom and you're too heavy for me to carry… but I think if you can get up and lean on me I can do some magic to help support your fat ass." She knelt once again and they wrapped their arms around one another as she tried to help him off the ground, and Lock did his best but the pain was still so intense it took all of his strength not to moan out loud. Shock muttered a spell under her breath and it seemed to him like gravity eased a bit, but it still took monumental effort to get to his feet.  They limped along through the mausoleum and out into the cemetery, and Shock felt the need to make small-talk to distract herself.  “What the actual hell, I can’t believe that human shot you over a truck!”

"It probably wasn't the truck they were mad about, it was probably those chrome testicles. I know I'd be pissed if someone was messing with my testicles." Lock snickered.

"Yeah right, you _wish_ someone would mess with your testicles…" Shock teased him and he grinned through his pain.

"Ooh, are you volunteering?" he teased right back, and Shock rolled her eyes but couldn't keep from laughing before quickly changing the subject.

"Seriously, though… it seems like a pretty big overreaction. Don't they have police who would disapprove of trying to kill someone over a little vandalism?"

Lock shrugged as best he could despite leaning so heavily on her shoulders.  “Who knows?  Humans are crazy.”

“Clearly.”  They limped along out of the cemetery and down a little dirt path through the woods and Shock continued, "I'm having flashbacks of that time you broke both your ankles jumping off that roof when we were kids, remember?"

"How could I forget? And I wasn't just jumping off the roof for no reason, I was trying to land on that other building. I just miscalculated, that's all."

"Same difference, the end result was the same: your forty-thousandth visit to Dr. Finkelstein. You've always been a reckless idiot." she sighed.

"No, you're just a scaredy-cat wimp who never does anything fun. Always have been." he sneered, but then something occurred to him that he'd never really thought about before. "I guess that's why we make a great team. We balance each other out or whatever." he said, trying to sound casual.

Shock snorted but she had to admit she liked the sound of that... and when she really thought about it, she decided that he was right. "If you say so." she said, and Lock felt a little bit crestfallen at how dismissive she sounded until she added in a slightly more affectionate tone, "But I guess someone's gotta watch out for you and make sure you don't kill yourself so it might as well be me."

Then it was Lock's turn to snort out a laugh. "Whatever, you totally love it. You'd die of boredom without me around to shake things up, admit it."

Shock turned her head to give him an annoyed look, and they were so close that despite the darkness she could see his expression quite clearly. It was a strange look, however, and she wasn't quite sure she could place it... was it... hopefulness? Something about his face looked so earnest that she decided to throw him a bone: "Alright, I guess you _do_ keep things from getting too dull. I can't say that living with a train-wreck of a best friend isn't entertaining."

Lock grinned at her and she couldn't help but smile before turning her attention back to their surroundings. They were out in the relative open now, so they needed to be quiet and careful. They hobbled along as quickly as they could back towards a cluster of trees only a few more yards away, but the sun was beginning to peek over the horizon and Shock was almost positive that they weren't going to make it in time. As if he'd read her mind, Lock muttered, "Shit. I think we're screwed."

"I think you're right.”

"Maybe we should just go back and hang out in the mausoleum?"

"And then what? Wait around until next Halloween?" she said irritably. "No, let's get to the portal and make sure it's really closed, then we can leave a note saying where we are. Hopefully Barrel or somebody will open another portal and come looking for us and we can get the hell out of here."

"I don't have anything to write with.“

"I have some chalk."

Lock was impressed - Shock always seemed to be prepared for anything, but he still had to make fun of her for it. "Why the heck are you carrying chalk around on Halloween? You're such a nerd."

"Because we witches use it to do spells, moron!"

"Oh yeah... I forgot."

Shock rolled her eyes as they stopped in front of a very large tree. It was twisted and gnarled and the bark was pitted and split from some sort of disease, and if any citizen of Halloween Town touched a certain place on it during the right window of time, a portal to their world would appear. Shock placed her hand against the rough bark, but by now dawn was well and truly breaking and just as they'd suspected, nothing happened.

"Shit." Lock groaned, wiping his forehead with his sleeve.

"Indeed. I guess we're spending the day in that mausoleum after all." Shock looked around and saw a large, smooth rock nearby. "Hang on to the tree, I'm gonna leave a note. Then we'll just hope for the best."

Lock leaned against the tree and watched as she wrote: _"Oak Rdg grvyrd - mauslm - L &S" _on the rock, then he leaned on her again as they limped back towards their hiding place. It was a very dangerous journey as it got lighter and lighter, and they were extremely lucky that no humans spotted them before they were safely back in the crumbling, cracked marble tomb. While the lack of people out in the country posed a challenge when it came to finding scaring victims, it was definitely helpful now.  They returned to the chamber where Shock had healed Lock's leg and she helped him sit back down onto the floor with a groan. Shock slid down against the wall to join him on the floor to catch her breath. Helping him walk all that distance had been a lot of work and they just sat there resting in the dark for some time. She felt warm to begin with, but as her sweat began to cool she started to get uncomfortably cold.

"I'm freezing." she shivered, and Lock's first desire was to hold her in his arms to keep her warm… but while that would certainly be effective and pleasurable it might be going a little too far, so instead he suggested a slightly less intimate solution.

"If you go get something to burn, I can get a fire started. I don't think I can keep one going for very long without any fuel right now." He hated to admit that, so he couldn't help but add: "Any other time I could. Just not when my leg's roadkill, as you so descriptively put it."

Shock had also secretly been hoping he would just hold her close and she was disappointed with his suggestion, but she was way too afraid to suggest the alternative. Besides, his idea was certainly practical and she couldn't help but be amused by his obvious attempt to protect his ego by pointing out how powerful he typically was. "Alright, I'll go find something. You good for a little while?" She stood up and looked down at his pale, still slightly-sweaty face.

"Of course." he said as cockily as he could under the circumstances, and she rolled her eyes before turning away from him and picking up her broomstick.

"Sure. Sit tight, I'll be right back."

"What else am I gonna do?" he called snarkily after her, and she raised her hand up to flip him the bird without turning around and he snickered to himself. Even though he couldn't hold her like he wanted, at least continuing to tease her was reasonably entertaining.

Shock flew swiftly back to the forest, keeping low to the ground and hoping no human would see her, and collected as many sticks as she could carry. She managed to avoid getting caught, though if a human saw her then she would just transform into a cat and run for it, even though that would mean abandoning the firewood and her broom - but her broom was just a broom to mortals, for only witches could fly on it. When she got back she found Lock exactly where she had left him, though he looked less sweaty and uncomfortable. She dropped the pile of sticks in front of him and he snapped his fingers once and they ignited.

"Nice." Shock murmured, sitting back down beside him and holding out her hands in front of the crackling fire. "I knew there was a reason I like devils so much. You're handy to keep around when you're not doing stupid shit like getting yourself shot." She tried to sound sarcastic, but inside her heart was beating quickly. She hoped he realized that she was trying to flirt, but at the same time she was terrified that he would. It didn't make any sense and she wished that she knew what he was thinking before she made a complete ass of herself – if she hadn't already.

"Whatever, that could have happened to anyone." Lock said, trying to keep his voice casual but inside his heart had leapt at her saying she liked devils so much, because to the best of his knowledge the only devil she was really acquainted with was himself. He watched with deep satisfaction as she warmed herself by his fire - it was the least he could do for her after she'd patched up his leg. They sat quietly for awhile and he tried to think of something else clever to say. It seemed like they were on a roll with what he _hoped_ was flirting, so he decided to try and prolong it. "I'm bored. Wanna make out?" he said, waggling his eyebrows as she turned her head to look at him.

Shock could hardly believe what he'd just said, and she also couldn't believe that he really meant it. Had he? She figured he was most likely just being his usual smart-ass self, and she was almost angry with him for joking about something she'd been secretly aching to do for months. "No, I want you to shut the hell up and get some rest. Hopefully we'll be hiking back to the portal to go home tomorrow so you need to be in as good of shape as possible considering your fucked-up leg."

"Fine, party-pooper." Lock pouted. He was disappointed, but really he knew it was foolish (and pathetic) of him to actually hope she would say yes. And she was right about him needing rest: before long he began to feel extremely tired and his eyelids began to droop... and before he knew it he was fast asleep, still sitting upright against the wall. Shock didn't even notice until she heard him start to snore softly, and it was only then that she realized just how utterly exhausted she was as well. They had been up for well over 24 hours at this point, and those 24 hours had been action-packed. She yawned and lay down on the floor as close to the flames as she could get without risking setting herself on fire - and also as close to Lock as she dared without actually touching him - and before long sleep claimed her, too.


	3. Chapter 3

Shock woke up some time later, and it took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. She had no idea how long she'd been asleep, but it was long enough for their meager fire to have nearly died out. Despite this, however, she felt quite comfortably warm and cozy… then she realized – with no small amount of alarm – that it was because she was curled up on her side with Lock spooning her from behind, breathing gently against her hair with his arm draped over her chest and his tail draped over her hip. She was instantly flooded with anxiety and excitement… which then transformed into panic and an embarrassingly high level of arousal when she noticed that his hand was actually resting directly against her breast on top of her clothes and she immediately froze. Lock must still be asleep because she was quite certain that he wouldn't dare to grope her otherwise, and hot shame welled up inside of her because she actually wished that he would wake up but keep his hand where it was… and maybe do even more with it. His palm was intensely warm – all of him was intensely warm, actually, and since his breath was soft and even and his body was still motionless she decided to risk trying to get even closer because he felt so damn good. She pushed back more firmly against him in one slow, smooth movement, but then froze again when she felt something hard poking against her butt.

Her eyes flew wide open and she sucked in a quick little gasp – was that what she thought it was? She didn't have any intimate experience with boys, and even though she'd lived with two of them her entire life she didn't know much about them when it came to sexual matters. But she had done a bit of reading and gossiping about it with some of her girlfriends, and when Lock sighed a bit in his sleep and rubbed up even closer against her she decided that there was nothing else it could be. But how could this be happening if he was still asleep? Was it possible for him to get like this without him even realizing it? Was he having sexy dreams and this was the result? What if he wasn’t really asleep and just pretending… did she dare imagine that perhaps he was like this right now because of _her?_ She bit her lip and her face burned, her whole body hot and tingly and it felt like time stopped and there was nothing else in the world but her and Lock and the physical evidence of his arousal pressed tightly between them. She didn't dare move, didn't dare break this strange, scary and wonderful spell that had settled over them. Then he sighed again and murmured softly before stretching a bit and she held her breath… then all of a sudden his entire body went from lazy and relaxed to incredibly tense. His breath seemed to catch and Shock wondered if perhaps he'd woken up? She wasn't completely sure, but she couldn't go without air any longer so took tiny, quick little breaths through her nose and waited in the dark for whatever would happen next.

Lock had been deep in a very, _very_ good dream. One where he'd actually gotten to hold Shock to warm her up, and soon she was in his lap as well as his arms. She was gazing at him with those shining obsidian eyes of hers, looking flushed and breathless and oh-so-alluring, and her cool, slim body against him was the best thing he'd ever felt. She was murmuring something in that quiet, haunting voice she used when she worked magic, and whatever she was saying now was working it's magic on his entire body. He felt tingly and hot from his horns to his toes to the tip of his tail, hotter than usual, and he moaned as her whispering lips ghosted over his own. He pushed his hips up against her, rubbing himself between her thighs and he was so excited now that if he could just get a little closer, could just move a little faster, a little harder against her he could… he could…

He murmured her name and heard her gasp… and that gasp somehow penetrated through the fog of his dream and he slowly realized it had come from the real Shock rather than his fantasy Shock. He opened his eyes and just about all he could see was her scraggly, wiry hair that he was nuzzling his face into. The next thing he registered was how good she smelled – like poison and herbs and a little bit of sweat from her exertion the night before. Then, to his simultaneous horror and pleasure, he realized that he was wrapped tightly around her back with his hand draped over her breast and his hard-on pushed up against the soft, slight curve of her rear end. He immediately and involuntarily tensed and listened to the sound of Shock's quick, shallow breaths and his horror escalated when it dawned on him that judging by the way she was breathing she was very likely awake right now – and if she was, it was impossible that she hadn't noticed the state he was in considering how tightly he was pressed against her. Somehow he had managed to end up spooning her in his sleep and panic as sharp as that bullet shot through him. Why had she not shoved him away? He tried to think of what to do… much as his body was screaming at him to stay right where he was, he obviously needed to pretend he was still sleeping and just casually roll away from her despite his sore leg, as if he were dreaming or just getting more comfortable. But before he could move, she scooted infinitesimally closer to him and his heart started beating so fast that he was afraid he might pass out.

Shock had heard him begin to breath as quickly as herself, and unless he was having a heart attack in his sleep or something he most certainly had to be awake now, too. He hadn't moved yet, and neither did she, and once again time stood still as what was left of his fire flickered and their shallow breaths reverberated softly against the marble walls. His heat and hardness felt so sublime that she was aching to get closer, and despite the tiny voice of reason and caution screaming in the back of her mind she decided to take the biggest risk of her life, figuring that if it didn't work out well she could always claim to be asleep. So she moved closer to him only the tiniest bit, her heart beating a fierce tattoo against her ribs as that fascinating, terrifying bulge nestled more firmly against her through her dress and she thought she might faint. Oh god, what was she doing? What was happening? How could something feel so good? She didn't think that anything could feel as good as dancing closely front-to-front with him, or when she'd clung tightly to his back with her thighs around his hips as he carried her, but the electricity coursing through her now was unlike anything she had ever felt… more exhilarating than when she'd first learned to fly, more terrifying than when Lock had been shot. She closed her eyes and waited, wondering if he'd noticed, and wondering what he would do.

The gears in Lock's brain were turning so fast that it wouldn't have surprised him if smoke was actually coming out of his ears. Had she done that on purpose? She was clearly awake right now so she must have... was she actually _enjoying_ being so close to him? Could she feel the effect it was having him? Did she like it? He started sweating again as he frantically tried to figure out what to do... he hoped that he wasn't misreading her signal and he decided to give her a tentative sign that he liked being this close to her, too, beyond just the obvious indicator in his pants. So he ever-so-softly squeezed her breast just a tiny bit, hoping that she wouldn't roll over and slap him.

Shock's eyes flew back open when she felt his hand squeeze her just a little tighter, so minutely that she almost wondered if she'd only imagined it, and it took all of her power to hold in a whimper. Neither of them knew what to do next. Speaking was unthinkable, but so was moving. Lock was afraid he would come in his pants if she rubbed back against him any harder, and literally nothing could be more humiliating than that. Shock didn't think she could keep from making embarrassing noises if he pressed his hand or body any closer to her, and as good as writhing against him would doubtlessly feel she was unwilling to risk the mortification of whimpering just from being close to him. So they stayed quiet and still as the awkwardness increased, two hearts beating quickly, two bodies tingling with pent-up terror and desire, each waiting for the other to make the next move.

After what felt like forever, Lock finally couldn't take it anymore. "Hey, Shock? You awake?" he whispered.

"Yeah." she whispered back. His hand was still on her breast and his erection was still against her butt, and still neither of them knew what to do about it.

"Uh... are you warm enough?" he asked, and he wished he knew how to tell her that he was more than willing to do whatever she wanted, whatever it took to make sure she was nice and warm.

"Yeah. Are you?" she replied, then mentally berated herself for saying such a dumb thing. Of _course_ he was warm enough! He was a devil, for crying out loud, and she could _feel_ how warm he was. She wished she could kick herself in her own ass, but even if she could she wouldn't have been able to right now because his crotch was in the way.

Lock didn't even have the presence of mind to make fun of her for saying something so ridiculous, he was too distracted by his simultaneous panic and excitement so he just answered, "Yeah."

The awkwardness was rapidly escalating. How could they be carrying on a normal conversation right now? It was completely surreal and Shock couldn't take the intense awkwardness any longer and she didn't know how to handle it, so she launched into her standard, ever-practical damage-control mode. "What time is it?" she asked, and even though she hated herself for it she scooted away from him and sat up.

"How should I know?" he replied, sitting up as well and bringing his good leg up in an attempt to hide the tenting at the front of his pants.  He was incredibly frustrated and disappointed - were they just going to ignore what had happened?  Clearly he had made a wrong decision somehow since she was now standing up and he was still on the floor with his balls aching and his self-confidence withering.

Shock smoothed out her dress and made a pointed effort to avoid looking at him - especially below his belt.  She didn't want him to see how badly she was doubtlessly blushing, and she was thankful that at least he couldn't know how damp her underwear felt right now.  "I'm gonna go look, I'll be right back." she said a bit shakily, then walked out of the chamber and down the dark aisle towards the door, tightly clutching the fabric of her dress with one hand and dragging her other along the wall to guide her.


	4. Chapter 4

Lock closed his eyes and thudded the back of his head against the cold marble wall several times in frustration once he was alone, wondering if there was anything he could have done differently that would have led to a more satisfactory outcome.  She’d been the one to move away from him, but she’d also been the one to scoot closer to him first.  It was all so confusing.  _‘Ugh, girls…’_ he thought to himself, although he knew that wasn’t really fair because except for the times she was pulling a prank, Shock had always been very straightforward with him - especially when expressing her displeasure with something he’d said or done - and he really didn’t think she was playing a prank on him right now.  Shock could be mean, but he didn’t think she was _that_ mean.  He’d come to terms with how much he wanted to be her boyfriend some time ago, but maybe she just wasn’t sure about him yet?  Maybe he should have said something else before she’d rolled away and asked about the time?  But he had no idea what he could have said to keep her where she was.  He sighed heavily.  He wasn’t sure about anything anymore, it seemed, and he just sat there and stared at the wall, trying to will his body to calm back down before she returned.

Shock peeked out the mausoleum doors and saw that it appeared they had slept for a good chunk of the day.  The air was crisp and cold and the sun was edging closer to the horizon, and by her estimate it would be dark in just a few hours.  She stood there for much longer than was necessary to check the time, trying to calm herself down so she could face Lock again after what had just happened.  It had been the craziest thing she’d ever experienced - and she’d been through some crazy stuff in her life - and while she typically prided herself on keeping relatively cool in tense situations, she’d never been faced with a situation like that and she couldn’t help but feel like she’d completely blown it.  Hadn’t she been wanting him to hold her like that for months?  And then when he finally did she’d chickened out and run away.  But dreaming about it and actually _experiencing_ it had turned out to be two entirely different things, and crossing that line had still been just a tad bit too scary.  But unless she was completely misreading his signals he _seemed_ to be interested and at this point she was _fairly_ certain that he wouldn’t turn her down… so why couldn’t she just go for it?  She sighed and closed her eyes, mustering up her courage and telling herself that if she got a second chance she wouldn’t screw it up again.  

Once her heartbeat finally slowed down things were pretty quiet except for some faint mooing from a nearby pasture, which made her think of Barrel chowing down on rotten cows, which then made her realize how hungry she was.  It was likely that Lock was feeling hungry by now, too, and while she had some candy stashed away in her bag it wouldn’t be enough to really fill them both up.  Much as she wished she could just stay out here for the rest of her existence and never have to look at Lock again, she took a deep, steadying breath and headed back into the mausoleum.  When she entered the chamber she saw that he had re-lit the fire and was holding one hand above it, no doubt to help it keep burning since the sticks were pretty much just ashes by now.  “Well?” he asked as he looked up at her.

“Sun’s gonna set in probably two to three hours, I think.  How does your leg feel?”

He looked back down at the fire.  “Still hurts like hell, but not as bad as it did yesterday.”

“Can I look at it?  Just to see how the spell’s holding up.”

“Sure.” he shrugged, extremely glad that his crotch had finally returned to it’s normal state.  He watched as she knelt down next to him and peeled the stiff, dried-blood-soaked shredded edges of his pants away from his skin, then gently ran her fingertips over the wound.  It was puffy and swollen, his normally white skin an ugly, livid purple - clearly he had sustained a significant amount of internal bleeding even after she’d closed up the wound.  Desperate to get things back to their previous, lighthearted, less-awkward state, Lock looked down at her fingers running across his leg and said in a very amused tone, “Damn, that looks gross.”

Shock was relieved by the humor in his voice, though she wasn’t sure why.  Was she expecting him to be angry for pressing up against him and then running away?  But apparently he was just as eager to diffuse the tension as she was so she smiled and said, “Super gross.”

“I think that’s the worst bruise I’ve gotten since Oogie died.” he said lightly, and Shock grimaced a bit.  She hated being reminded of how badly Oogie Boogie used to beat them when they were younger, and it always seemed like Lock had gotten it the worst.  She supposed it must have been because Oogie knew that Lock was the most likely of the three of them to rebel, but really, even if he did what could a 6-year-old child possibly have done to rebel against a creature as huge and powerful as the Boogie Man?  Oh, how she hated that bloated sack of bugs, and not a day went by that she wasn’t thankful for his demise.

“How’s the rest of you feeling?” she asked, then instantly regretted her choice of words.  She knew exactly how a particular part of him had been feeling just a few moments ago, but fortunately Lock didn’t take the opportunity to make a joke about it.

“Okay.  I still feel kinda weak, and I’m pretty hungry.  But I think after I get something in my stomach I can probably do my ‘poofy-fire-teleportation-thing’ over to the portal again.”

“Really?  That’s great!”  She was pretty impressed - Lock was definitely tough, but she thought he was making a remarkably quick recovery considering he’d nearly had his leg blown off just the other night.

“Don’t sound so surprised.  I can take anything.” he bragged.  _‘Including crippling humiliation…’_ he thought ruefully to himself.

“Uh-huh… except for getting your tail sliced off.”

“Give me a break, I was like, 6 years old!  And if _you_ had a tail and it got cut off I guarantee you’d have cried worse than I did.”

“I’m not sure it’s possible for anyone to cry worse than you did.” she snickered as she finally removed her hands from his leg, and Lock gave her an offended glare and said:

“ANYWAY.  What’s the status update, doctor?”

“It looks like you’ll live, unfortunately.”

“Ha ha.”

“But _I’m_ going to die of starvation pretty soon.  Do you have anything to eat?”

“No.  I just told Barrel he’d better bring me back some candy or I’d beat him up.”

“Nice going, genius.”

“Well excuse me for not having as many pockets as you.  And besides, I don’t like carrying around loads of crap - it cramps my sleek, svelte, devilish style.”

“You mean you just like using me and Barrel as your personal pack-mules, you lazy bastard…” Shock grumbled.

Lock grinned naughtily.  “It’s worked out pretty well for me so far.”

She gave him an exasperated look, but then smiled a bit naughtily herself.  “Well, _I’ve_ got a few candy bars that I swiped from some kids.  I _suppose_ I could share some with you… if you ask real nice.”

Normally Lock bristled at being coerced into saying anything remotely polite, but she sounded playful and he hoped that maybe their recent awkwardness had finally fully dissipated and they could go back to some fun, flirty-but-not-too-intense banter.  “Alright, give me some of your candy and I’ll make it worth your while.” he said slyly.

“Doubtful.  What could _you_ possibly do that’s worth my while?” she said snottily, but she was extremely curious about what his answer would be.

“Give me some candy and you can find out.  I have a good imagination, remember?” he grinned, his yellow eyes glinting mischievously.

Shock felt her cheeks go a bit warm at that, but she couldn’t think of any clever response so she just gave him an unimpressed look before standing up and going to retrieve her bag.  “Half-baked promises don’t count as ‘asking nicely’, especially coming from a demon.  Try again, devil boy.”

“Alright, fine.  Pretty-please with an eyeball on top?” Lock said in an extremely exaggerated sickly-sweet voice, and Shock snort-laughed loudly when he actually batted his eyelashes at her.  It was the most ridiculous thing she’d ever seen him do, and that was saying something.

“Stop doing that, you’re creeping me out!” she laughed as she threw a chocolate bar at his face, but he caught it effortlessly with one hand and tore it open with his teeth as she sat back down next to him.  She put the bag of candy between them and chose a caramel bar for herself, and they were both so hungry that they finished their first candy bars in companionable silence.

“What else have you got in there?” asked Lock as he swallowed the last of his chocolate bar, trying to peek inside the bag but she slapped his hand playfully away.

“Excuse you, but _I’ll_ decide who gets to eat what.”

“You’re lucky my leg’s just barely keeping it together.” Lock growled, making another grab for the bag but she snatched it up and held it away from him.

“Oh yeah?  Why’s that?”

“Because if it wasn’t, I’d wrestle you for that candy right here, and we both know you wouldn’t stand a chance.”

Shock knew that he was definitely right about that, but she wasn’t willing to concede defeat in this imaginary wrestling match so easily.  “Yeah, until I hexed your tail off.  I wonder how hard you’d cry if I did _that_?”

“I’d be too busy laughing ‘cus I’d set your hair on fire.”

“Well I’d just put it out with a spell, so there.”

Lock squinted appraisingly at her.  “Then I guess we’re at an impasse.”

Shock squinted back at him.  “Or you could just give up and eat this.” and she tossed a nougat bar at him.

“Gross, I don’t like these.” Lock pouted, though it wasn’t true - he was just trying to be difficult.

“Liar, since when?”

“Since right now.”

“Well tough tits, because that’s all we’ve got left.” She pulled the last candy bar out of the bag, and it was identical to the one she’d just given him.

“Hey!  Then why’d you make a big stink about being the one to choose who got what?” he frowned, and Shock gave him a sly smile as she unwrapped her candy bar.

“Because I wanted to mess with you.”

“You’re such a jerk.” Lock muttered as he opened up his candy bar.

“Takes one to know one.” Shock smirked, taking a big bite of her candy and giving him a smug sort of look.

“Well I learned from the best.” he sneered, but he was having trouble not smiling.

“Why thank you.” she said proudly, and Lock rolled his eyes and went back to his candy.  Unfortunately two candy bars each didn’t do much to alleviate their hunger, but Shock hoped that it had at least given Lock enough energy to transport himself back to the portal to see if anyone had come for them yet.  After they’d both finished eating they chatted and played a few games of tic-tac-toe on the floor with the chalk, with Shock periodically poking her head outside to check on the setting sun.  When it finally began to get quite dark outside she looked down at Lock and said, “What do you think, think you can make it?” 

“Yeah, I think so.”

“I’ll go first and wait for you there in case you don’t.” she said as she grabbed her broom.

“Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence.” he said sarcastically, but he didn’t try to get up from the floor - he knew he couldn’t stand on his own yet.

“Alright fine, see you there, smokey.” she challenged, but inside she was worried about him.  It was bad enough that they were stuck in the Human World, but if they got separated somehow… well, that was too terrible to contemplate.

Thanks to his position on the floor, Lock caught a glimpse of her lacy black bloomers as she swung her leg over to straddle the broom and his eyes widened a bit and his face suddenly felt hot.  He’d seen them before thanks to their shared laundry line, but he’d never seen them actually _on_ her and he couldn’t quit staring even after her dress fell back into place.  There was another tantalizing image for him to add to excellent imagination and he only snapped out of it when she looked down at him - completely unaware that she’d just flashed him - and asked:

“What?”

“Nothing.” he said quickly.  “I’ll see you there, slowpoke.”  Then he snapped his fingers and disappeared in a flash of fire right where he was sitting, extinguishing what was left of the fire as he went and leaving her alone in the pitch-black chamber.

“Goddamn it, Lock!” she shouted into the dark even though she knew he couldn’t hear her, then reached out her free hand to feel her way down the aisle to the exit, waddling awkwardly with her broom still between her legs and muttering under her breath.


	5. Chapter 5

Lock couldn’t really explain how exactly he was able to get where he needed to go in his puff of smoke and flame.  Like all the other devils, he just did it somehow.  All he knew was that it was a quick and handy way to get around, at least when he didn’t screw up and miss his mark.  Fortunately this time he managed to appear only a few feet away from the portal tree, but unfortunately he also ended up landing right on the large, smooth rock that Shock had written their note onto.  “Ow, damn it…” he hissed under his breath as his butt hit the hard, cold stone, and he leaned to one side just enough to free his tail out from under him.  Very rarely did he try to teleport while sitting down, and when he did it was with the intention of landing somewhere soft, like the sofa or his bed.  While there weren’t a lot of comfortable options out in the forest, he’d at least been hoping he’d land in the dirt - although that probably wouldn’t feel all that great either, he supposed.  

He checked out his surroundings while he waited for Shock to arrive: it didn’t appear that anything had changed and he looked down at the rock he was sitting on to see if another note had been left for them, but it looked exactly the same - albeit a little smeared from where his pant leg had rubbed against the chalk.  He considered trying to hobble or crawl over to touch the tree and see if anything happened, but the last thing he wanted to do was somehow slip through the portal without Shock.  He wasn’t generally a nervous sort of devil, but right at that moment he was feeling a little bit anxious and worried about her.  He didn’t like that she was out there on her broom all by herself, at risk of being spotted by a human, and he wished that he could teleport others along with himself… but while he would like nothing more than to keep her warm, the last thing he wanted to do was burn her up to a crisp.  He knew she was quick and clever and definitely good at staying out of sight, but still… everything was more dangerous for them on Not-Halloween, and if anything happened to her… 

Happily, before he could get too worked up he heard a rustling through the underbrush and then Shock emerged from behind a tree, safe and sound and looking rather grumpy.  “Thanks for nothing, dumbshit, the fire went out when you left and I had to feel my way out of the mausoleum like a naked mole rat.”

He grinned evilly.  “I know, I did that on purpose.”

“You’re such an asshole.”

“Birds of a feather.”

Shock rolled her eyes, and if it weren’t for his leg she would have smacked him with her broom.  Instead she walked past him and over to the tree, then inspected it closely and touched her hand to the bark… and nothing happened.  “Well, I knew it was kind of a long shot, but it was still worth trying.  Do you see any sign that anyone’s been here?”

“Nope, nothing.  Still screwed.”

Shock sighed.  “Remind me to kick Barrel in his fat ass whenever we finally get home.”

“He’d better not be eating all my candy.” Lock grumbled, and Shock raised an eyebrow at him.

“You mean the candy that you told him to steal for you or else you’d beat him up?”

“Exactly.”

She couldn’t help but chuckle a tiny bit at that, then walked over to him and said, “Scoot over.”

Without really thinking it through, Lock looked up at her and snickered, “This rock’s pretty cold and hard, you wanna just sit on my lap instead?”  He waggled his eyebrows, hoping that she’d say yes, but hoping even more that he hadn’t just scared her off again.

Shock’s cheeks went pink and inside her mind the answer was a resounding ‘YES’, but she didn’t think that putting the extra weight on his thigh was a very good idea right now.  However, she remembered her earlier pledge to herself not to chicken out anymore, so she tried to think of the flirtiest way possible to turn down this particular invitation.  “Hot and hard is definitely better than cold and hard,” she said, glancing at his lap with a little smirk and his heart sped up at her innuendo, “But that wouldn’t do your leg any favors so I must regretfully decline.  But I’ll take a rain check on that.  Now scoot it.”  Lock quickly obeyed, wondering if she’d really meant what she’d just said… perhaps his dream from earlier would come true after all.  She sat down beside him and started thinking through their options now that it seemed they weren’t going anywhere for the time being.

“What now, brainiac?” teased Lock, pleased with how closely they were sitting side by side.

“I thought you were the one with all the brilliant ideas?”

“Eh… my leg hurts and I’m hungry.  I can’t concentrate.”

 _‘You’re not the only one who can’t concentrate…’_ Shock thought to herself, for she had scooted quite a bit closer to him than was actually necessary in order to fit on the rock.  “I’m hungry too.  I think the first order of business should be getting more food.”

Lock grimaced a bit.  “How’re we gonna do that?”  He _really_ didn’t like the idea of Shock nicking food from the humans all by herself on Not-Halloween.  Missions like that always worked better in a team or trio, but he was in no shape to join her on a food heist at the moment.  Again, he knew she could take care of herself and deep down he knew he was being a bit overprotective, but still… if anything happened to her he’d personally hunt down whatever human tried to hurt her and set them on fire.  Fortunately, she had a different solution in mind:

“Simple.  You get a fire started, and I’m going to go hunting.”  And with that, she changed into her black cat form right before his very eyes and leapt off of the rock.  She gave him a look that seemed to say _‘I’ll be right back’_ , then she darted off into the forest.  Lock stared at the spot where she’d disappeared into the underbrush for a moment.  He wasn’t entirely sure if devils were capable of being in love, but right at that second he thought it was quite possible that he was in love with her.

He slid carefully off of the rock so that he was sitting on the ground instead, and slowly dragged himself around so he could collect some sticks to burn.  Just as he’d gotten a decent number piled up in front of the rock they’d been using as a seat, Shock crept back through the underbrush carrying a dead squirrel in her mouth, which she dropped on the ground in front of him.  “Good kitty.” he said teasingly, and she shot him a glare more deadly than he ever would have guessed a cat was capable of.  Then she hissed at him and ran off into the forest again, and he snickered to himself as he lit the fire and pulled out his knife to began skinning and gutting the squirrel.  She caught three more in fairly rapid succession, then changed back into a witch and helped him skin and gut the last of them.

“I think that’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen you do.” Lock admitted as he started skewering the squirrels with a long stick, feeling super jealous of this particular ability of hers.  Before she could reply he grinned evilly, “How fun is it to watch these little things squeak in terror and try to get away from you?”

She was panting just a little bit as she smiled wickedly at him - catching squirrels was hard work, after all.  “Very.  Usually I like to play around with them for awhile before finishing the job, but I was too hungry to to do that this time.” She pulled a bottle of greenish water out of her bag and swished some around in her mouth for a moment, and Lock looked at her curiously when she turned her head and spit it out.  “Squirrel fur.” she explained as she wiped her mouth with her hand, and he laughed out loud.  Maybe he wasn’t too jealous of this ability after all.

She handed him the bottle so he could take a drink as well, then sat on the opposite side of the fire so they could both turn the stick full of squirrels like a spit.  It didn’t take long before the meat was nicely roasted, and she moved back over to sit next to him on the ground and they leaned their backs against the stone while they ate, so close that their shoulders and arms were touching.

“Not too bad.” Lock said with his mouth full.  He’d pulled one off of the skewer immediately after it came out of the fire, but Shock had to wait for hers to cool it off a bit first.

“Yeah, it really isn’t.” she agreed after she’d finally taken a bite.  “Could use a little salt, and maybe some henbane…”

“You should catch a few to go.  Makes a nice change of pace from rats.” Lock said, pulling his second squirrel off of the stick.

“Mmmph.” Shock mumbled with her mouth full, then swallowed and said, “Only if you carry them back.”

“Well in that case, nevermind.”

Shock rolled her eyes, but she was smiling.  “Speaking of going, I’m not sure if we should stay here and wait or go back to the graveyard.”

Lock shrugged as he ripped a hind leg off of the squirrel.  “I dunno.  Pros of staying here: we don’t have to go anywhere again.”

“And we’ll be right here if someone finally fucking comes for us.”

“Cons: if some human sees the fire or takes a walk we’re gonna have to haul ass out of here.  Or just scare them away really good.  So I guess that actually counts as a pro.”

“Unless that human happens to have a gun…”

"Pshaw..." Lock scoffed, waving his hand dismissively and sending a little chunk of squirrel meat flying.  "I've got another leg left."

Shock ignored him.  “And it’s cold as shit.  At least the mausoleum chamber was small enough for the fire to actually warm the room up.”

“Are you implying that my current campfire is insufficient to meet your needs?”

“I’m not implying it, I’m flat-out saying it.”

Lock raised an eyebrow at her as he flung the few remaining squirrel bones from his dinner into the bushes.  “Well then, how’s this?” and he raised one finger and pointed it at the fire, and the flames suddenly and violently tripled in size.

“Holy shit, Lock, cut it out!  Are you _trying_ to draw attention to us?” she hissed, jabbing him in the side with her elbow.

“You said you were cold.”

“Yeah, but setting the entire forest on fire is _not_ the solution!” she said, throwing her squirrel bones off to the side as well.  She was trying to sound stern, but in truth she was a little turned on.  Watching Lock play with fire was always enjoyable and sometimes - like now - it was even a little bit sexy.

“You’re no fun.” he pouted, but lowered his finger and brought his entire palm down to the ground, and the fire receded back to it’s normal size again.  He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, wondering if what he was about to do would go over well… then he decided to go for it.  “Not the solution, huh?  Hmmm… how about this?” and he brought his arm back to wrap around her shoulders and pull her in close against his side, hoping that she somehow couldn’t feel the way his heart was suddenly pounding rapidly against his ribcage.

“Yeah, I think that’ll work pretty well.” she murmured.  Her voice was embarrassingly breathy and she couldn’t help trembling a little bit with excitement, but she willed herself not to care about that as she snuggled in closer to him.  _‘Here’s your second chance.’_ she thought to herself.  _‘Don’t screw it up!’_   So she brought her own hand up to rest against his chest.  She could feel the thudding of his heart and the way his chest rose and fell with each quick, shallow breath he took, and the heat radiating through the thick fabric of his shirt seemed to zing through her palm, up her arm and permeate her entire body.  She definitely wasn’t cold anymore.

Lock felt her shaking a little bit and assumed she was shivering, so he wrapped his other arm around her and pulled her even closer still.  “Happy to help.” he said, sounding just as breathy as she had.

“That’s a first.” she said a bit sarcastically, and he snorted.  They sat there together for hours, just enjoying the contact and watching the fire, listening to the owls hoot and watching bats fly erratically through the sky.  Occasionally they made small talk, but mostly they kept quiet - though this time it was a comfortable, companionable sort of quiet rather than an agonizingly awkward one.  Neither of them really considered themselves the romantic type, but they had to admit that the setting _was_ pretty romantic at the moment. When the earliest, faintest light of dawn began to just barely edge over the horizon, Shock finally said: “Well, I don’t think anyone’s coming tonight.  I think we should head back to the mausoleum for the day to keep out of sight.”

“I think you’re right.” Lock agreed, and even though he was extremely reluctant to let go of her he loosened his arms so she could scoot away from him once more.

“Ready to go?”

“Help me up first.  I don’t want to go back sitting down again, I slammed my ass pretty hard last time.”

“Are you serious?  Do you really think you can stand up on your own right now?”

“Yeah, I can just balance on one foot.  It only takes me a second to get there, and I’ll just use the wall to slide back down to sit.”

Shock raised a skeptical brow, but held out her hands anyway to accept both of his own.  It wasn’t easy despite Shock using her spell to help support his weight once more, but eventually they got him standing.  “Alright, I’m gonna step away so you don’t fry me.  And you’d better not tip over and crack your skull open, ‘cus I’m not healing that.  You only get one freebie a week, got it?”

“That’s not fair, I’ve been warming you up nonstop for like, two days.  And I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.” he leered at her and her heart fluttered, but Shock was determined to keep her cool.

“It’s a deterrent to keep you from doing anything dumb and getting yourself hurt.  I need you in good shape and fully functional, after all.”

Lock grinned even more lecherously as she gave him a teasing little smirk and let go of his hands.  Fortunately he managed to stay on his feet as she took quite a few steps back - she’d learned through experience that standing too close to him when he disappeared in his burst of flame was a good way to get the brim of her hat singed.

“See you back there.” he said, and Shock nodded as she mounted her broom - and Lock was disappointed that he hadn’t gotten a peek beneath her dress again.  Then he snapped his fingers and disappeared in a flash, leaving nothing but the faint scent of sulphur and smoke.  Shock took a brief moment to cast a spell to extinguish the fire - the last thing she wanted to do was accidentally burn down the portal tree - and then took off into the night back to the cemetery.


	6. Chapter 6

Shock had just barely left the forest when it occurred to her that it would probably be smart to grab some more firewood.  While she had very high hopes of falling asleep in Lock’s arms this time, having a fire that he didn’t have to concentrate on maintaining would probably make the experience all the more enjoyable.  She also felt it would be wise to grab a bit more food - the squirrels had helped, but if they were going to be stuck here for another day then they were definitely going to get hungry again, and swiping some food at night would be easier. So she flew to the little general store on the Main Street of the tiny town, and as she parked her broom by the dumpsters behind the building she was glad that stores in the country stayed closed for much longer than those in the city.  Stealing from a 24-hour mega-mart would have been considerably trickier than this little Mom n’ Pop store.  She cracked open the back door and flipped on the first light switch she found, and happily no alarm was triggered.  Again, she was thankful for these overly-trusting bumpkins who probably thought that bad things never happened _‘in their town’_.  

Most of the food wasn’t too appetizing to her and Lock’s taste and there wasn’t much of a selection, but eventually she settled on some sausages and bread and she even found a few cans of pumpkin pie filling.  She also grabbed some more candy, then kicked over a few display cases just for fun before flipping off the light and heading out through the back door, which she left wide open - maybe if she was lucky a raccoon or something would find it’s way inside and cause a little extra hassle for the owners.  Then she flew quickly back to the forest for more firewood before finally turning back to the cemetery once again, just as the dawn was well and truly breaking.

Back in the mausoleum, Lock was feeling a bit stressed.  Shock was taking much, _much_ longer to arrive than she had before, and if he could have walked worth a damn he would have been pacing the room.  Where the hell could she be?  What was taking her so long?  Even though he knew that it hadn’t been done for hundreds of years, he couldn’t help but think about witches being burned at the stake or hanged or drowned… though it was pretty much only falsely-accused humans that had suffered that fate, for any real witch worth her salt could easily escape such a situation - and Shock was definitely worth her salt, in his opinion.  But still, there was some nut-job with a shotgun out there who would certainly leap at the chance to attack the other ‘hooligan’ who had messed with his stupid testicle truck.  Not only was Lock feeling anxious, but he was also getting incredibly bored and being unable to do anything about it was extremely aggravating.  Just when he felt like he was on the verge of going insane, he heard the heavy mausoleum door creak open and Shock call out, “Turn on the lights, will you?” and he increased the size of the fireball that he’d been juggling anxiously back and forth between his hands for the last hour.

“What the fuck took you so long?” he frowned as she entered the chamber, but his question was immediately answered when she dropped her armful of firewood on top of the little pile of ashes on the floor.

“What are you, my father?”

“Far from it.  The hillbillies may want to screw their relatives, but I don’t.”  Then he shut his mouth when he realized what he’d just said.

Shock raised her eyebrows.  He had basically flat-out said exactly what was on his mind, though considering the reaction his body had to her just the other day she supposed she shouldn’t be surprised.  It was still pretty wild to hear him say it out loud though, and she could have sworn that her ovaries actually tingled in response, if that was possible.  Somehow something about his blatant admission gave her a little bit more courage than before, so she gave him a little smirk and said, “Way to keep it classy.  Glad to hear you have _some_ standards.”  For the first time in a long time Lock didn’t know how to respond after his Freudian slip, but fortunately Shock kept talking.  “I also got us some food.  I don’t know about you, but those squirrels weren’t exactly super-filling.”

“Good call.” he said as she dropped the bag on the floor between them and sat down.

“So, did you slam your ass again when you landed this time?” she snickered as she started divvying up the food, and Lock grabbed one of the sticks out of the firewood pile to skewer a couple sausages before lighting the fire.

“No, I made a perfectly graceful entrance this time, actually.  It’s a shame you weren’t there to see it.” he said boastfully as he held the sausages over the flame.  The truth was that he had just barely managed to control his descent onto the floor without falling on his butt and bending his tail.

Shock snorted and rolled her eyes as she peeled open one of the cans of pumpkin.  “I’m sure it was a truly magnificent sight.  Like I haven’t seen it a million times before.”  The meal was a bit pathetic, but at least it was filling and the sausages weren’t half bad - and the pumpkin pie filling was pretty good too, even though they had to scoop it out of the can with pieces of bread.  “How’s your leg?” Shock asked after she took a swig of water and handed him the bottle.

“I dunno, you tell me.” he replied, taking a drink himself.  Really he just wanted her hands on him again, and Shock was happy to oblige.  She gently pushed back the torn fabric edges of his pants and lightly traced the wound with her fingertips - it didn’t look any better, but it didn’t look any worse, either.

“Seems about the same.  It doesn’t look like the discoloration has spread, so at least I’m pretty sure you’re not actively bleeding internally anymore.”

“Well, that’s a relief.” he yawned.  “I don’t know about you, but I’m beat.”

“Why are _you_ beat?  I’m the one who’s been running around taking care of everything.”

“Yeah well you didn’t just about get your leg blown off two days ago.”

“I thought you said you can handle anything?”

“I can.” he said sleepily, then yawned again and Shock rolled her eyes.

“Alright, oh impervious one, let’s get some rest.”  She watched as Lock very carefully lowered himself onto his back, using her empty bag as a makeshift pillow.  Once he got settled she took off her hat and wadded it up to make her own attempt at a pillow, then lay down right beside him and this time she was the one to scoot close against his side.  Her hand wandered over to rest across his chest again, and Lock really wanted to try giving her a kiss goodnight, but he was so tired that he didn’t think he’d be able to do a very good job of it.  However, he hoped that at the rate they were going it wouldn’t be too much longer before he got to give it a shot.

Despite their mutual excitement from being so close to one another again, sleep came to them easily.  The thick marble walls muffled the sound of a distant rooster beginning to crow, and then the lowing of cattle as a herd of dairy cows meandered down through a nearby pasture from the milking barn to see what they could scrounge up to graze on this chilly second day of November.  Eventually Lock woke up first to find that his fire had mostly gone out and that he had ended up rolling from his back onto his side facing Shock in the night.  She was nestled up as close to him as possible face-to-face, and he took the opportunity to just stare at her for awhile, admiring how wickedly witchy and pretty she was with her long, aquiline nose, the little wart on her jawline and her dark, shadowed eyelids that were currently softly closed and that hid her sharp, calculating, coal-black eyes.  Then those eyelids slowly opened and their eyes met, and Lock held his breath as they just gazed at one another for a moment.  Time stopped, the air was thick with tension and electricity, and they both felt like they were moving in slow-motion or underwater as he leaned in just a tiny, _tiny_ bit closer and she did the same, breaths light and quick, barely daring to blink… 

And then they were kissing, softly and slowly at first, hesitant and shy, eyes fluttering shut and their closed lips touching lightly and tentatively as they tried to figure out how to work around their noses, and both still not quite able to believe this was really happening. Then after a moment Lock opened his mouth a fraction and Shock did the same. He experimentally slipped just the very tip of his tongue between her parted lips, soft and wet and so, so good, but she gasped as his tongue invaded her mouth so he immediately broke the kiss, terrified that he'd gone too far.

"I'm sorry." he breathed in a rare apology, hoping that she wouldn't punch him in the face, but instead her own tongue darted out to moisten her pale green lips and she said a little bashfully:

"No…I… I don't want to stop."  It was the truest statement she had ever made.  Kissing Lock was even more incredible than she ever would have imagined, and she’d imaged it _a lot_.

Lock was hardly able to believe it, and he didn't think he'd ever felt so happy in all of his existence. It was like a thousand Halloweens rolled into one, and from now on this was how he wanted to spend every Halloween – and every Not-Halloween, for that matter: making out with Shock in a spooky, crumbling, cobwebbed mausoleum - though preferably without the gunshot wound. "Yeah?" he asked.

"Yeah." she replied, then leaned in to meet him halfway and this time it was she who parted her lips first and ran the tip of her tongue along the seam of his mouth and he immediately opened to let her in.  She rubbed her palm back and forth across his chest and up to his shoulder, and he wrapped his arm more tightly around her waist and pulled her more firmly against him - he felt much less embarrassed about the possibility of her feeling his body’s reaction to her this time around, and sure enough, he felt that telltale rush of heat to his groin when she moaned into his mouth and rubbed her pelvis a little harder against him.  Shock felt it and moaned again, and all of the fear she’d experienced the first time this had happened was nowhere to be found - now there was only excitement and desire.

After several minutes of this he felt overwhelmed and overstimulated, so he pulled back to look at her and she was just as flushed and alluring as she'd been in his dream. "Wow," he panted softly, and it sounded completely stupid but he didn't know what else to say.

"Yeah," she whispered, gazing into his eyes. They were glowing gold in the remaining firelight, his pupils huge and glinting and she couldn't believe how wickedly handsome he looked despite his rather stunned expression. Then the corner of mouth quirked up a bit and he joked:

"You really _do_ like devils. Not that I blame you. We _are_ super sexy, after all." He had to make a joke because if they kept making out he wasn't sure he'd be able to stop, and he didn't want to frighten her away with how badly he wanted her. At this point his leg could have been chopped off completely and he still wouldn't have had any trouble trying to ravish her, if she'd let him.

She rolled her eyes. "God, you are so full of yourself, it's unreal." Then she couldn't help smiling a bit naughtily, "And I guess _you_ really did want to make out, huh?" Lock didn't know it, but she was actually having similar feelings: she wanted to keep going, but at the same time she was a little scared. Things were moving so fast and she wasn't sure she was ready for where this might lead if they kept at it right now - plus her underwear was getting increasingly soaked and she didn’t have an extra pair with her - so when he gave her a startlingly lustful grin she felt the need to quickly change the subject. "How's your leg?"

"What leg?"

Shock rolled her eyes yet again. "Don't be an idiot."

Lock looked down at his injury and then back to her. "Oh yeah, I forgot about that. My mind was more pleasurably engaged." he smirked, trying his damndest to live up to devils's reputations for being almost as seductive as vampires.

"Wow, fancy words there, devil boy. You almost sounded like Vasile." she teased, and Lock's face instantly transformed into a frown. Shock raised an eyebrow at him, a little amused by how angry he suddenly looked. "What? Are you jealous or something? I only danced with him for half a song two months ago. It didn't mean anything."

"I'm not jealous, he's just an idiot who was only trying to get in your pants." he said crankily. Truthfully Lock had never wanted to punch anyone so hard in his entire existence. He'd wanted to knock that stupid, smooth vampire's fangs right out of his head and shove one up each of his nostrils... and then punch him again for good measure.

Shock couldn't help but smile a bit wickedly at his obvious lie. The knowledge that Lock felt so jealous over her was extremely pleasing and all of her earlier trepidation about moving too fast flew right out the window. "Hmm. But doesn't _this_ mean that _you're_ trying to get in my pants, too?" and with a boldness that surprised herself, she rested her palm lightly on his crotch and he sucked in startled breath.

"That's different." he managed to say in a strangled voice.

"How so?"

"Because _I_ actually know and like you." he confessed, and then pulled her hand away because it was driving him crazy.

"I like you, too."

"Well I should hope so, considering we've been friends forever." He was trying to stay nonchalant, but inside he worried about her only using the word 'like'. _'What were you expecting, idiot?'_ he thought angrily to himself. _'For her to confess her passionate love for you or something?'_ He supposed that if all she wanted from him was to make out without any romantic feelings then he could deal with that. Friends-with-benefits wasn't the _worst_ situation he could think of, but he would prefer it if she actually cared about him beyond that. When had he become such a sap? Then Shock interrupted his thoughts:

"No, I mean I _like_ -like you."

"Oh."

His short response and the fact that he'd pulled her hand away from him made her insecurity flare up despite the fact that they'd just kissed for a considerable amount of time. Did he like-like her, too? Or had he meant it when he said they were 'friends'? Shock wasn't sure she could handle just making out with him casually, and if that's all he wanted then she wasn't sure she wanted to make out with him at all. Over the last two months (and probably quite some time before that, if she was completely honest with herself) she'd developed feelings for him that went way beyond platonic, and the idea that he didn't reciprocate those feelings beyond getting physical was terrible.

But she didn’t need to worry about that - it was simply taking Lock a moment to process the enormity of her confession and after a beat he slipped his hand down from her waist to her rear and then it was her turn to gasp in surprise.  “Well I like-like you more.” he said smoothly, giving her a little squeeze and leaning in for another kiss, but before he could reach her she tilted her head away and gave him a cranky look.

“Why do you always have to try to one-up me, you turd?” she said with mock irritation, though inside she was flooded with happiness and relief to hear that it wasn’t just physical.  She could pretty much always tell when he was lying, and it was clear he was telling the truth this time.  Lock could also tell that she wasn’t actually annoyed and his lips curled up into a little smirk.

“Sorry, it’s just that it’s impossible not to one-up you.  I don’t do it on purpose, I’m just that awesome.”

“Careful, devil boy…” she threatened as she ran her hand back up along his good thigh and dangerously close to his crotch again.  “You might want to be a little more thoughtful about what you say if you don’t want to sustain a more devastating injury than the one that human gave you.”  Then she squeezed his erection almost as hard as he’d squeezed her ass and all bets were off as far as Lock was concerned.  He crushed his mouth to hers once more with a groan but just as things were really starting to get hot and heavy they heard the loud creak of the mausoleum door opening and they quickly broke apart.


	7. Chapter 7

“Helloooo?” the voice of their littlest cohort echoed down the mausoleum hall.

“Down here, dumbass!” Lock called, and he and Shock quickly sat up and scooted just far enough away from each other to not look suspicious.  Lock grabbed Shock’s bag and put it on his lap to hide his still-raging hard-on and Shock giggled a little, then after a moment Barrel poked his head into the chamber, holding a flashlight and looking relieved.

“There you guys are!  What the crap are you doing?  Why didn’t you come back after Halloween?”  Then he saw the disaster that was Lock’s leg as well as the huge pool of dried blood on the floor and his already wide eyes widened more.  “Whoa, what happened?!”

“Lock got shot messing around with some crazy human’s truck testicles.” Shock said, and both she and Lock laughed at the utter confusion that spread across Barrel’s face.  “What the hell took you so long to come get us?”

“You better not have eaten all my candy!” added Lock, but Shock ignored him and continued her rant.

“We waited around out there for hours and left a note.  Don’t you know how to read?  Or were you passed out on rotten beef for two days and forget that you have roommates?”

Barrel shrugged and decided to ask for more details surrounding Lock’s encounter with a gun and ‘truck testicles’ - whatever those were - later.  “For the first day and a half I just thought you guys were playing a trick on me or something.  It wouldn’t be the first time.” he reminded them, and they had to concede he was right about that.  “But then I came looking for you, I swear!”

“Okay great, but that was still a day ago!  Again: did you forget how to read?” Shock said irritably.  She was happy to be going home, but she was also cranky that her make-out session with Lock had been interrupted.

“No, I thought you guys were at the Oak Creek portal so I went there first and hiked around all night looking for you!”  Barrel was generally pretty easygoing, but he was feeling a bit annoyed with how ungrateful they were being when he’d tried so hard to rescue them after they’d been dumb enough to miss the portal.  He couldn’t teleport like Lock or fly around like Shock, so tromping through the woods with his stomach still full of carrion had been extremely uncomfortable.

“Why the hell would we be there when all three of us came through the Oak _Ridge_ one this year, moron!?” Lock snapped, feeling just as conflicted as Shock about wanting to go home versus wanting to see how far he could make it with her in the mausoleum just then.

Barrel shrugged.  “I dunno, sometimes you guys do random crap and don’t tell me about it.” he said, though the truth was actually that he’d just forgotten.  “Anyway, so then I tried that next and I saw your campfire and your note so here I am.  The portal will only stay open for a few more hours, so you wanna get out of here or what?”

“YES.” his older cohorts answered together.

“Help me get lard-ass off the floor.” said Shock as she got to her feet, and Barrel hurried over and easily lifted Lock off of the floor.  He had grown quite strong as he aged, and Lock was glad that Barrel had a considerably less-violent disposition than himself because he was pretty sure that Barrel could actually beat him in a fight nowadays if he really wanted to.  Lock was also glad that his arousal had mostly waned at the interruption, but he still kept Shock’s bag more or less where it was just in case, and fortunately Barrel didn’t seem to notice anything amiss… but he was wrong about that.  Barrel was more observant than anyone gave him credit for, and he _did_ in fact think it was a bit odd that Lock was holding Shock’s bag for her, and in that particular location as well, but he couldn’t _quite_ put together what _exactly_ was so weird about it so he let it slide for the time being.

“That looks super gnarly.” Barrel said in a very impressed voice as he stepped back and got a proper look at Lock’s leg.  There was a copious amount of dried blood covering his upper thigh to down below his knee and his pant leg was shredded all around where the bullet had torn through him.

“You should have seen it right when it first happened!” Lock said excitedly.  “It felt like it blew my leg right off, and it pretty much looked like it, too!”

“His whole thigh was gaping open, front and back. It was crazy-awesome.” agreed Shock, for it had been a wound that surely would have scared the pants right off of any human who’d seen it.  “There’s probably blood and chunks of Lock-meat all over that human’s truck!” she cackled, and Barrel started giggling, wishing that he could have seen it.

“Good, gives them a little something to remember me by besides their slashed tires and broken windshield.” Lock grinned wickedly, and suddenly all of the pain felt completely worth it.  Not only had he most likely scared the hell out of that human and messed up their precious truck, but he’d gotten to make out with Shock - and it seemed certain that this wouldn’t just be a one-time thing.  Severe injury or not, this had turned out to be the best Halloween ever and he wondered if he could convince her to pick up where they left off as soon as they were back at home.  “Alright, I’ll see you two losers back there.” he said, and Shock and Barrel both took several more steps away from him before he snapped his fingers and disappeared in a burst of flame.

Shock picked up her broom and she and Barrel walked out of the mausoleum together, Barrel holding up the flashlight to light their way down the dark aisle and into the night.  She decided to walk with her littlest cohort rather than fly so she could fill him in on everything that happened - well, not _everything_ that had happened - and hear about how his Halloween had gone as well.  She put her arm around his wide shoulders and said cheerfully, “Even though you totally fucked it up, thanks for coming to get us, midget.”  Barrel may have been thick and strong now, but he was still the shortest of the three of them.  He frowned up at her but she gave him a mischievous little smile and continued, “Actually, you did us a favor by fucking up, so thanks for that, too.”

“What do you mean?” he asked, completely confused once again.

“Never you mind.” she said even more mischievously, then patted him on the head.  “So, how many cows did you half-eat and leave laying around?”

Clearly she wasn’t going to be forthcoming about whatever she was cryptically referring to, so Barrel gave up on asking questions… but then suddenly it hit him like a ton of bricks and he began piecing together all of the little bits of evidence before him: Lock holding her bag in front of his crotch, the way Shock still looked a bit pink and flushed even now, the way both her and Lock’s hair and clothing had been rather disheveled… that combined with what she’d just said and the way she had said it, along with the growing suspicions that he’d been having for well over a year now that she and Lock were getting a little extra-cozy (suspicions that had only strengthened after the ball two months ago)… well, it all painted a pretty clear picture.  Barrel didn’t consider himself to be a genius, but he definitely wasn’t blind.  It was going to be _so_ much fun ribbing both of his friends about this later, but for now he decided to play dumb.

“A ton of them!” he grinned widely - for more than one reason - and his abnormally-high number of teeth glinted in the moonlight.  “I left one in front of the school and all three churches, along with the gas station and a bunch of houses!”

“Nice!” Shock said approvingly.  “Why the hell does a town this size need _three_ churches?”  Clearly the human with the shotgun and truck testicles needed to bone up on their ten commandments, and by the sound of it there was no excuse for them not to with three churches to choose from.

Barrel shrugged.  “Who knows?  But they’re probably gonna wanna build a fourth one now because I put some of the cow bones and guts in pentagram shapes and spray-painted a bunch more pentagrams and evil-looking goat heads and 666’s and other stuff humans think are scary all around.”

“Nice work, they’re all going to panic thinking their kids are in a cult or something.” Shock cackled, and Barrel laughed along with her.  She only half-listened to him chattering on about all the details as they made their way to the portal tree, for the other half of her mind was wandering back to those few precious moments before he had arrived at the mausoleum.  Oh, what a Halloween it had been, and she couldn’t wait to look up some proper healing spells and potions to heal Lock’s leg completely - or maybe they would even go to Dr. Finkelstein to make absolutely certain it was 100% fixed.  She had a raincheck for sitting on that lap of his, after all, and she intended to cash it as soon as possible.

They found Lock leaning against the portal tree waiting for them, and his eyes flashed when Barrel unintentionally shone the flashlight in his face.  “Did you manage another glorious and graceful perfect landing?” Shock smirked as they walked up to him.

“You know it.” Lock smirked back, and she rolled her eyes affectionately.

“You ready?” she asked, placing her palm against the tree trunk.

“More ready than you can imagine.” Lock said, giving her a look so steamy and sexy that it sent a rush of heat right between her thighs.

The portal opened up and Shock looked over her shoulder and tried to give him an equally sexy look.  “I think I have a pretty good idea... you’re not the only one with a good imagination, you know.” she teased, then stepped through the portal and vanished.

Barrel raised his eyebrows as he watched all of this - they weren’t even being subtle now, and he was partly amused and partly grossed-out… but mostly he was amused.  “Wow, it looks like you had a happy Halloween.” he said lightly as he helped Lock hobble over to the portal.

“Are you insane? I got shot!” Lock huffed.  He’d kind of forgotten that Barrel was standing right there there while he and Shock were flirting with each other.

“I’m not talking about the gunshot.” Barrel said in a sly tone of voice, looking up at Lock with a mischievous little smirk.

Lock was about to protest again, but then he decided it was pretty pointless to keep trying to hide what had happened from Barrel - he was going to find out soon enough anyway, so Lock looked back at him and a wicked smile spread across his face.  “Alright, it was pretty much the best Halloween ever.”

Barrel grinned back at him as they stepped through the portal together.  “I had a pretty great Halloween, too.” he said happily. While he hadn’t gotten to make out with anyone, he _had_ enjoyed having the house all to himself for a few days - and he was glad that Lock wasn’t able to run at the moment because he was definitely going to be pissed when he got home and saw that Barrel had eaten all of the candy.  Or maybe he wouldn’t… it seemed likely that Lock would have other things on his mind and other ways to spend his time for awhile, and Barrel could only hope that Lock and Shock didn’t make out with each other as loudly as they fought with each other, or else _he’d_ be the one taking up residence in a distant mausoleum.  But really he was happy for his friends, and frankly, he was rather glad that they’d finally gotten it over with.  Now that Lock had pretty much outright admitted what Barrel suspected to be true, he decided it was time to start the teasing.  “Just do it in Shock’s bedroom, okay?  That way I don’t have to hear it as much.”  He was hoping that Lock would be embarrassed by this, but he really should have known better by now.

“HA!  What makes you think we’ll be keeping it to the bedrooms?” Lock said evilly as they stepped back into their own world.  They found Shock waiting for them and she raised her eyebrows at Lock’s words - _she_ would be perfectly happy to ‘keep it to the bedrooms’, but she supposed that being with a devil whose entire purpose in life was to think up sinful things would probably turn out to be a hell of a ride.  Now that Lock had apparently let the cat out of the bag, she took his hand in her own as Barrel continued to support him and the three of them headed through the streets of Halloween Town and back to their home.  “So, how much candy did you swipe?” asked Lock, and Barrel had to work hard to hold in his laugh.

“Tons!” he answered, and it technically wasn’t a lie.  He had indeed stolen a very large quantity of candy - it was just that he’d also already eaten it all.

“Excellent.” said Lock as they turned down their street.

“Now what the heck are ‘truck testicles’?” asked Barrel, and Lock and Shock started laughing so hard that Barrel couldn’t help but join in.  This was a Halloween that all three of them would definitely never forget.


End file.
